1) After sex, a man is accused of rape. Under the current law in the UK, the accused man is named, the female ‘victim’ remains anonymous. This applies to accusations of sexual and other abuse against children as well. The inevitable result of that publicity is a ‘witch-hunt’ and the accused man is persecuted, threatened and otherwise bullied and in many cases either lynched or commit suicide. This is even before he has been to trial. Many, perhaps most cases collapse before trial. In rape cases barely 6% reach a conclusion with the accused man found guilty, around 300 per year. There has been a massive jump in rape accusations in the last few years, but the actual level of convictions has stayed at around 300 per year.

The feminists argue that the Police and courts are failing women. I argue that women are swamping the system with false accusations knowing they can destroy a man without actually having to stand trial or be named – the damage is done immediately.

2) The highlighted case is extraordinary because in the overwhelming majority of failed accusations, there is no punishment for the accuser. Compare the Police’s response to somebody who makes a false 999 call – extremely likely to be prosecuted for wasting Police time. Yet make a false allegation and ruin a man’s life, normally no punishment.

3) This woman actually received 6 months in prison. I would argue that that kind of sentence is not a deterrent. The man could have got 10-15 years if found guilty, the woman should get a similar punishment. Then it would act as a deterrent. This woman is a danger to all men.

4) Overwhelmingly the UK prisons are full of men – only around 4000 women out of a prison population of 75000 approx. The UK prison service is at capacity. Police stations are having to use their custody cells for prisoners. Yet around 8000 of the men are remanded in custody until their trial. Many will be found innocent and have no claim for wrongful imprisonment. They can only claim this if found guilty, locked up and then released on appeal.

5) Do men and women receive the same punishment for the same crime?
Overwhelmingly the answer is NO. Not from me, but from the sentencing
guidelines council who monitor these things. They highlight, for example, the perception that women convicted of manslaughter receive longer sentences than men. http://www.sentencing-guidelines.gov.uk/docs/advice_manslaughter.pdf
(specifically point 7 on page 4)

The reality is the opposite. they monitored cases where spouses killed
each other and claimed provocation – it reduces murder to manslaughter. In the UK, a conviction for murder is a mandatory life sentence (although up for discussion at present and there are proposals to introduce a first, second and third degree murder) manslaughter is at the discretion of the Judge. When a man killed his female partner, he got an average of five years. When the woman killed
her male partner she received an average of 18 months.

A Home Office study in 2003 monitored cases from initial stop and search by the Police through arrest charge and sentencing on an age, gender and nationality basis. It is widely believed that the police are institutionally racist and this was confirmed by the study – for example – a black or Afro-Caribbean person was SIX times more likely than a white person to be stopped and searched by the Police – SIX times more likely is sufficient to say that the Police are
institutionally racist. So how would you describe the system when a man is TWENTY times more likely than a woman to be stopped and
searched?
They followed cases through to trial and determined that gender was a significant predictor of severity of sentence – they stopped short of saying the system favoured women, which it obviously does! When comparing similar crimes and similar severity of crimes, the men on average got custodial sentences where the women got community sentences. Alternatively, where both went to prison, the men got longer sentences than women. Newspapers in the UK have run campaigns to stop ANY woman being jailed! .

2 Responses to “The False Allegations Option”

FYI, here is my e-mail to “Nine to Noon”, National Radio, today. The host interviewed a claimed client of a counsellor who alleged, under cover of anonymity and voice distortion, that the counsellor sexually abused her in the sessions:

Dear Kathryn

Allowing people to vent sexual abuse allegations anonymously
and using disguised voices raises serious ethical questions.
Firstly, there is the question of natural justice in that
an accused may be thought to have a right to know who is
accusing them and to “face their accuser”. Unfortunately,
in the “moral panic” around sexual abuse our law has turned
its back on this and other longstanding, important planks of
justice. Secondly, your use of anonymous interviews will
encourage dishonesty for reasons of personal vendetta,
social activism or otherwise. There is no accountability
for what an anonymous, disguised person says. While it does
appear that Mogridge has been sexually exploiting vulnerable
clients he has as much right as anyone to a fair process.
In allowing disguised voices your programme is contributing
to a witch-hunt mentality that believes that no fairness or
justice need be shown to men accused of sexual crimes. By
the way, I have never heard a disguised male interviewed on
your programme making allegations against a woman; does this
reflect a gender bias in your practice?

Actually you apparently did not listen to the radio interview. The issue here was that the husband of the abused was speaking, not the victim herself. Furthermore, as was clearly stated Mr. Mogridge was already accused by the Health and Disability Commissioner about the sexual abuse and the interview with the husband took place because all the facts of the sexual abuse had been proven and were at that time published, for everyone, including yourself to read. I propose you go to http://www.hdc.org.nz and read the commissioner damning report about this Mr Mogridge before proclaiming this rubbish. The women involved went to court, also public, so next time hear the whole story before you write something OK ?
Cheers
Robyn

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